"Language and Society" paper

English with an Accent Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States

Rosina Lippi-Green

London and New York

5 Teaching children how to discriminate What we learn from the Big Bad Wolf

All official institutions of language are repeating machin es: school, sports, advertising, popular songs, news, all continually repeat th e sam e structure, the same m eaning, often the same words: the stereotype is a political fact , the major fi g ure of ideology.

Roland Barthes, The Pleasure of th e Text (1975)

In 1933, while the US was in the depths of a severe depression , Walt Disney's animators created a short cartoon which would mak e an $88,000 profit in the first two years of its release (Grant 1993: 56). Perhaps this figure is not so surprising, given the statistics of the time: by 1930 there were some 20,000 motion-picture theaters in business, serving 90 million customers weekly (Emery and Emery 1992: 265) . 11ms the fir st filming of Three Little Pigs , a familiar story with a message of hard work in the face of adversity, was widely seen. The theme of good triumphing over evil was clearly a timely and popular one, and it is one that has not gone out of favor: this cartoon is still shown with regularity, in part or whole, on Disney's cable television channel.

One of the topics which is often discussed in relation to this particular Disney animated short is a scene included in the original release, in which the wolf - in yet another attempt to fool the pigs into opening the dobr to him - dresses as a Jewish peddler (Grant 1993, Kaufman 1988, Precker 1993b ). He has a hook nose, wears side locks and a dark broad-rimmed hat similar to one worn by some Orthodox Jews, carries his wares before him, and contrives a Yiddish accent. 1 Kaufman recounts that it wasn 't until the film 's re-release in 1948, fourteen years later, that Disney rean- im ated the scene in which the Wolf appears as a Jew. This step was taken in response to communications from the Hays Office, which brought the issue of Jewish se nsibilities to Disne y's attention .2 Grant reports that Disney later admitted that the original scene was in bad taste (1993: 54); nevertheless, only the offending visual representation was changed, and much later (at a date never specified clearly), " in case the Yiddish dialect of the original scene might itself be found offensive, the dialogue was

"' ..... :·.·

80 Institutionali zed language ideo logy

ch anged as well. Now th e Wolf spoke in a standard 'dumb ' ca rtoon voice " (Kaufman 1988: 43-44) . Even when the wolf no lo nger appeared Jewi sh, he spoke with a Yiddish accen t, thus maintaining the underlying message base d in anti -Semitism a nd fear of the other : a link between the evil inten- tions of the wo lf and things Jewish . G rant also relates that th e newer an imatio n and di alogue sti ll le aned on more general ste reoty pes and fears: "the disguised wolf no tonger has Hebraic tones or mann erism s, inste ad saying: Tm the Fuller brush-man. I workin ' me way through college.' Th e syntax al one be li es th a t sta teme nt" (1993: 54) .

Sixty yea rs later. a similar controversy would arise over the portrayal of ch aracters in Disn ey's Aladdin, a movie set in a mythical A rabic kin gdom. An offe nding lin e o f dialogue in a n opening song, " Wh ere th ey cu t off your ear if they don't like your face I It 's barb aric, but hey, it's hom e," was partially chan ged in response to co mplaints fr om th e American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (AAA DC) , but as th e repres entative of th e AAADC po inted out, th e accents of th e char- acters rema ined as originally filmed. The represe ntat ive

particul arly objected to the fa ct that the good guys - Al addin , Princess Jasmin e and her father - talk like Ameri cans, while all the other Arab characters have he avy accents. This pounds home th e message th at people with a fo rei gn accent are bad.

(Precker 1993a)3

Is there truth to this sup posi tion? What are children to take aw ay from th e Big Bad Wolf, and fro m brutal Arabian palace guard s? ls it signifi- can t that they see bad guys who sound a certa in way, look a certain wa y, and com e fro m a ce rt a in part of town o r of the world? Is this a part of how children learn to assign values on the basis of variation in language linked to race, ethnicity. and ho meland ? To ma ke this poin t, it woul d first be necessa ry to demonstrate regular patterns which are ava il ab le to children on a day-to-d ay basis. for as Silverstein (1992) asse rts, "we are fac ed fir st -o ff with index ical facts, facts of obser ved/experie nced social practices, the syste mati city of which is our central prob lem: are they syste matic ? if so, how? " (322).

T his cha pter is a bout the sociolinguistic aspects of the syste matic constructio n of domin ance and subordinance in ani ma ted films aimed at children.

It is first observa bly true that so mehow, children learn not only how to use vari ation in their own lan gua ge, but also how to interpret social vari- ation in the lan guage of o thers. They do thi s with or without exposure to tel evis ion and film , but in the curren t day, few children grow up without thi s exposure. Th e 1995 World A lmanac reports that 98 perce nt of a ll US household s, or so me 94 .2 milli on homes, have tel evis ion se ts ; of these , 79 percent own video cassette recorders and 63 percent subscribe to basic cabl e. As see n in Figures 5.1 and 5.2, when children are no t in front of

Mon .- Sun. 8 p.m .- J J p.m.

Mon.-Fri. 3:40 p.m .- 7:30 p.m.

Mon.-Fri. 10 a.m.-4: 30 p.m.

. Teachin g children how to discriminate 81

~ ~

Figure 5.1 Average hours per week children watch television , by time period and two age groups Sou rce: J 995 World Almanac and Book of Facts

the television set, they are avid consumers of the products of th e movie industry; in 1992 over 15 million seats were occupied by children under the age of 2; those between 6 and 11 double this numbe r.

For bett er or worse, th e television and film industries have become a major avenue of contact to the world outside our homes and communities. For many, especially for children, it is the only view they have of people of other races or national origins.

In traditions passed down over hundreds of years from the stage and theater_ film uses language variation and accent to draw character quickly, building on established preconceived notions associated with specific regional loyalties, ethnic, racial , or economic alliances. This shortcut to characterization means th at ce rtain traits need not be laboriously demon- strated by means of a character's actions and an examination of motive. It also means that these characterizations are culture- a nd period-bound ; in this, films have much in common with ficti o n, and the represe ntation of our cultures and our selves is equal ly worthy of study.

It must be noted at the outset that it is not my intention to con- demn out of hand all use of abstraction in entertainment film , or even

+ 't

82 Institutionalized language ideology

Milli ons

40,000

35,000

30,000

25,000

20 ,000

15 ,000

10,000

5,000

Under 2 2- 5 6- 11 12- 17 18-24

Figure 5. 2 Mo vie theate r attendance ca lculated for th e year 1992, by age So urce: Me di ama rk Resea rch 1993. vol. Pl 3

parti cul a rly in cartoo ns. Som e ster eotyping may be ine vitable. Whethe r or n o t all stereotyping has nega tive repe rcussio ns is a matter of inter- preta tion ; he re I hope to sho w that while the practice is sometimes mild a nd no o bvio us o r dire ct harm fo ll o ws from it, th e re a re always repe r- cussio ns. For th a t reason al o ne, it wo uld be good to be mo re ge ne rally aware of th e way stereotypes functio n in film directe d a t childre n.

TALKING THE TALK

Any acto r ne cessarily brings to a rol e his or her own na tive language. In many cases, the vari e ty of E nglish is irrel ev an t to th e ch aract eriza tion . and can be le ft alone. O ften , howev er. the dire ctor o r actor will target a particul ar so cial, re gio na l, o r for e ign acce nt of E ngli sh, perhaps beca use it is intrinsic to the rol e and cannot be sacrificed . US a udi ences may or may not suspend di sbeli e f when R o bin Ho od spe a ks with a Californi a acce nt, but it wo uld be ha rder to cast someon e wi th a n u pper-cl ass British acce nt as an y o f the rece nt US pres ide nts a nd not do seri o us harm to audience expe ct a tions and reception .

In a simil ar way, non-na tive spea kers of En gli sh who co me to the U S to mak e film s necessaril y bring their L2 accen ts to their work . Thi s

a;

a: a a: c

is

p c t i

t i

b c c

1

r 1

Teaching children how to discriminat e 83

accent may restrict th e roles th ey can play, or they may have roles written or rewritten to suit th e immuta bl e nature of their accents (Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gerard D epardieu, Sophia Loren , and Greta Garbo provide ex amples) . Actors undergo accent training of various kinds in a n atte mpt to teach them to imitate what th ey need for a particular rol e, although we have seen that even with expensive and careful tutoring no t all actors are equally ca pable of this tas k, even in the limited way it is asked of th em during filming (see th e discussion of the So und Hou se in Chapter 2).

Wh a t is particularly relevant and interes ting in this context, howe ver, is the way that actors attempt to m anipul ate langu age as a tool in the construction of character, whether or not they are successful. Educational progra ms for the training of acto rs for stage and scree n often include classes on speech , dialogue, and th e contrivance of accent. lJ it is poss ible to fool some of th e people some of the tim e, it is still necessary to learn the skill behind this trick.

The ma terials used in these courses are interesting in and of themselves, beca use th e approach often includes not just the mechanics and techni- calities of one particular regional or foreign accent, but also issues of content and approach .

Dialect actors must avoid going so far with certain speech traits that they end up creating e thnic or linguistic stereotype s ... language or dial ect background does not dictate character actions. Characters with accents must have the same ran ge of choices available to them as char- acters wh ose speech is id e ntical to yo urs.

(Karshner and Stern 1990: Preface )

This is an e nli ghtened and realistic position, certainly. Oth er materials pre pared for actors are not alwa ys so even-handed, as seen in Foreign Dialects: A manual for actors, directors and writers (Herman and He rman 1943), a volume still in print:

Th e Cockney Dialect: ... The typical Cockney is often a brash little fellow. He is an inveterate heckler, and some of hi s favorite victims are the soap-box orators in Hyde Park. His speech is usu ally nasa lized , possibly because of adenoid trouble which is quite prevalent in the British Isl es. Often , his dia lect is de livered in a whine . . . there is always a slove nliness to the pronunciation .

(19)

The Swedish D ialect: ... the Swedes are usually more li ght-he arted than their Scandin avi an cousins, more interested in the joys of living and eating. The Norwegi ans, on the other hand, are likely to be more solid and serious. The Swede likes conviviality, and the Norwegian solitary, lonely contemplation.

(295)

84 Institutionalized language ideology

The Polish Dialect: ... [Poles] are religious - especially the women - and devoutly Catholic. The Pole is industrious and will not shy from the hardest labor in the steel mills, foundries, and other heavy-duty jobs. He is a pleasure-loving person and it is this quality that leads him into the extremes of conviviality. He is not what may be called a thinking man ... he is slow to thought, slow to speech, and slow to action.

(351)

Sometimes, the contrivance of accent appears a logical and reasonable dramatic strategy. Often stories about people who come to the US from other countries Jean hard on accent to establish the origin of the character (Al Pacino's Cuban-accented English in Scarface; Nick Nolte's Ttalian- accented English in Lorenza's Oil or Marlon Brando's in The Godfather; the range of attempted Swedish accents in I Remember Mama). For films set in the southern US, actors are often coached long and hard on the acquisition of a second variety of US English (Vivien Leigh in Gone with the Wind); sometimes the attempt is not made at all (Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, and other men in the same movie).

Perhaps most interesting, a director often requires actors to use accents as a signal that the action and dialogue would not be taking place in English. Thus, in a Nazi concentration camp in Schindler's List, the commanding officer (Ralph Fiennes, who is British) speaks English with a contrived German accent to alert viewers to the fact that he would, in fact, be speaking German. There is a long list of filmed stories in which dialogue would not logically be taking place in English. Such films include Schindler»~ List (German and Polish, as well as other eastern European languages), Papil!on, Dangerous Liaisons, Impromptu, and Gigi (French), Diary of Anne Frank (Dutch), The Good Earth (Chinese), Fiddler on the Roof (Yiddish, Russian), All Quiet on the Western Front (German, French), Dr. Zhivago and Gorki Park (Russian), Kiss of the Spider Woman (Spanish), The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Czech, French). Here accent becomes a signal of place and context rather than a means to quickly convey character. In such a case, it would make most logical sense to have all actors contrive the same French or Russian or Chinese accent. 4

Rarely, however, is this policy consistent. In most movies, live action or animated, where accent is used as a cue to place, only some characters will speak with a contrived accent. Many possible reasons for this come to mind: Perhaps this is because not all actors are equally capable of targeting the required accent, or of temporarily disguising their own. Perhaps the director prefers no accents to partial or unbelievable ones. Or perhaps, in some cases, accent is used as a shortcut for those roles where stereotype serves as a shortcut to characterization. Actors contrive accents primarily as a characterization tool, although there is sometimes supplementary motivation in establishing the setting of the story. Below,

Teaching ch ildren how to discriminate 85

I will consid er exact ly whe n certai n acce nts are contr ive d, a nd perh aps more import ant, wh e n ma instream US E nglish ( MUSE) is co nsid ered accep ta ble, or eve n n ecessa ry. To do thi s, we will consid e r one body of anima ted film in d etail.

ANIMATED FILM

ln animated fi lm, even mo re so th a n is the case with li ve -act io n e nte r- ta inm e nt, lan guage is used as a qu ick way to build character a nd re affirm stere o type:

prec isely because of their assumed inn oce nce and inn ocuou sness, their inh ere nt ability - eve n obligatio n - to defy a ll co nve ntions of reali stic re pres enta ti on, animated cartoo ns offer up a fascinating zone with which to exa mine how a domin ant cu lt ure constructs its su bo rdin a tes. A s non-ph o togr aphic applicatio n of ph o tographi c medium , they a re fr eed from the b asic cine matic expectati on that they con vey an "imp res- si o n of rea li ty." ... The functi o n and esse nce o f cart oo ns is in fa ct the reve rse : the impression o f irre ality, o f intan gibl e and ima gina ry worlds in cha otic, disruptive, su bve rsive collision.

(Burto n 1992: 23-24)

1be re are pattern s in th e way we project pictures and images of ourse lves and oth e rs which a re availabl e to an yo ne who watches and li sten s carefully. A study of acce nts in a nimated cartoons over time is likel y to rev eal the way lin guistic stereo types mirror the evo luti o n of na ti ona l fears: Jap anese and Germa n cha racte rs in cartoons durin g the Second World War (Pop eye meets th e "oh so solly " Jap a nese fl ee t), Russ ia n sp y characte rs in childre n 's ca rtoons in th e 1950s a nd 1960s (N atasha and Boris meet R ocky and Bull wi nkle, or " beeeg trrrouble fo rrr moose and squirrrrrel") , A rabi a n characters in the era of hostili t ies with Ira n and Iraq . In the fo ll ow in g discuss ion of sys te m a ti c pattern s fo und in on e speci fic set of child re n's an imated fi lm, th e hypot hesis is a simple one: a nimated film s e nte rtain , but they are also a way to teach childre n to associate specific characte ristics and life styles with specific soc ial groups, by mea ns of language variati on .1 To test thi s hypothesis, 371 characte rs in a ll of the av a ila bl e Disney full -le ngth a nimat ed fi lms we re analyze d .

DISNEY FEATURE FILMS

O n th e surface it is quite obvio us th a t Disney film s prese nt yo ung childre n with a range of soc ial and lin guistic stereotypes, fr om L ady and the Tram p's cheerful, m usical Ita lian chefs to Treasure of the L ost Lamp 's stingy, Scottish-accented McScrooge. In or der to loo k more systema ti ca lly at th e way Disney fi lms em ploy accent and dial ect to draw ch a racter and

I ti I;

l r I

I I

l

86 Institutionaliz ed language ideology

Table 5.1 The Disney films

1938 Snow While 1963 1940 Pinocchio 1967 1941 Dumbo 1970 1941 The R eluctanr Dragon 1977 1942 Bambi 1981 1950 Cinderella 1986 1951 Alice in Wond erlan d 1989 1952 Rob in Hood 1990 1953 Peter Pan 1990 1955 Lady and th e Tramp 1991 1958 Sleeping Beauty 1992 1961 JOI Dalmatians 1994

Th e Sword in th e Swn e Th e Jungle Book The A ristocats Th e Rescuers Th e Fox and th e Hound Th e Great Mouse Derec1ive Th e Little Mermaid Treasure of the Lost Lamp Th e Rescuers D o wn Unde r Beauty and the Beast Aladdin Th e Lion King

ste reotypes, i ~ was necessary to analyze all released versions of fu ll-len gth animated Disney films ava ilabl e. 6

This body of a nim a ted films was chosen because th e Disn ey Corporation is the la rges t producer of such films , and they are perhaps the most highly marketed and advertised of th e field (Disney total advertising budget for 1992 was $524.6 million , some significant por tion of which was spent directly on feature and animated films). Here I con si der o nly fu ll-len gth feat ure films (gen era lly betwee n one and a h alf to two hours in len gt h) and specifically exclude short feat ures, cartoons, and compila tions of sh orts gro uped toge ther for thematic reasons. Only fully animated films were included in the study, excluding those th at combine live-a ction se quences with animation (Song of the South , Three Caballeros). Animated film created for an adult audience (the wartime film Vicwry thro ugh Air Powe r is o ne exampl e) were also omitted . All characters with speaking roles of more th an single-word utterances were included in the analysis.

A total of twenty-four films were viewed multipl e times. 7 Each of the 371 characters was a nal yzed for a variety of language and characteriza- ti on variables. Th e detailed lin gui stic description for each chara cte r consisted of a mix of phonetic transcription, quotes of typical syntac tic structures, and mark ed lexica l items. In cases where an actor is cl early contriving an accent, a decision was made as to what langu age var iety was most likely intended to be portrayed. That is, a poorly imitated British (or other foreign) accent was still co unt ed as such for the creators a nd (most) viewers. Fo r examp le, in Aladdin, one of th e min or ch ara cters, a thi ef, speaks pri marily mainstream American, but also has so me trilled r ' s - definitely not a feat ure normally associated wi th American En glish. This character's accent was st ill classified as mainstrea m American, however, since only one atypical feature appeared in his phonology. Another character whose speech ex hibits features from two o r mo re dialects is Cogsworth, the bu tle r/cloc k in Bea uty and the Beast. H e spe aks with a

,-..;: A A ' / I

Teaching children how to discriminate 87

contrived British accent in which some American features crop up unpre- dictably; thus, thou gh it is not an accurate imitation of a middle- or upper- class British di alect, for the purposes of this study it must be class ifi ed as such .

After a brief conside ration of the findings of th e quantitative an alysis mor e generally, I will concentrate on three aspects of lan guage use in Disney fi lms. These are th e re presentation of African Americans ; the wa y that cert ain groups are represe nted (particularly lovers and moth ers) ; and finall y, using Fre nch accents as a case stud y, the way th at even pos itive ste reotypin g can be negative and limitin g.

The whole mouse and nothing but the mouse

Of the 371 characters with speaking roles in the twenty-four movies exam- ined , 259 or 69 .8 percent are mal e. Female ch aracters make up the other just over 30 percent. A loo k at the wa y femal e and mal e characters are deployed, overall, indicates that within the proportions established, th ey are equally distributed as major and minor characters. Female characters are alm os t never shown at work outside the home and family ; where th ey do show up, th ey are mothers and princesses, devoted or (rarely) rebel- lious daughters. When they are at work femal e characters are waitresses, nurses, nannies, or housekee pers. Men , conversely, are doctors, waiters, advisors to kings, thieves, hunters, se rvants, detectives, and pilots.

Jt is certainly and demonstrably the case that the universe shown to young children in these films is one with a clear division betwee n the sexes in term s of life style and life choices. Traditional views of the woman's role in the family are strongl y underwritten, and in Di sney film s, wh ether they are filmed in 1938 or 1994, th e female characters see, or come to accept, the ir first and most import a nt role in life as that of wife and mothe r. What does an examination of langua ge use ha ve to add to thi s observation? What do characters, ma le and female, speak ?

For the most part ( 43.l percent) they speak a va riety of US English which is not stigmatized in social or regional t erm s, what has bee n called MUSE throughout this study. Another 13.9 percent speak varieties of US English which are southern, or urb an , or which are associated with particul ar racial, ethnic, or economic gro ups. Mainstr ea m varieties of British E nglish are spoken by 21.8 percent (Fi gure 5.3).

While 91 of the tota l 371 characters occur in roles where th ey would not logically be speaking English , th ere are only 34 characters who spea k English with a for eign accent. The tende ncy to use for eign accents to convey the se tting of the story is confirmed by th ese distributions: there are twice as many characters with foreign-accented English in stories set in pl aces lik e France and Italy.

Th e Lion King, set in Africa, is certainly a case of a story in which the logical language would not be English. This is ackn o wl edged , indirectly,

88 Institutionalized language ideology

Non-nati ve English (9 %) ---r--

Other British ( 11 % ) MUSE (43% ;

Mainstream Bri tis h (22'fn)

Social US (5 %) Regional US (8 %)

Figure 5.3 37 l Disney animated c haracters by la ngua ge variety used

in the names of the characters, many of which are derived from Swahili. The good-natured but dumb warthog is called Pumbaa , or simpleto n; Shenzi, the name of the leader of the hyena pack , means uncouth. However, the only character who actually uses traces of Swahili and a contrived Swahili accent is Rafiki (Swahili , friend) , the wise and eccentric baboon who fulfills the role of spiritual guide.

Figure 5.3 indicates that some 90 percent of all the characters speak English nativel y, with an American or British English accent. Howeve r, Figure 5.4 makes it clear that 60 percent of all the ch ara cters appear in sto ries set in English -speaking countries; thus, a significant number of English-speaking characters appear in stories set abroad (sometimes these are "Americans abroad" as in Donald Duck in search of treasure; some- times th ese are characters who are not logicall y English speaking, given their role and the story, as in all the characters in Aladdin). In Figure 5.5 three language settings are considered: stories se t in English-speaking lands, those se t in non-Engli sh-spea kin g countries, and finally, those set in mythical kingdoms where it would be difficult to ma ke an argument for one language or another as primary (The Little Mermaid , for example. at tim es seems to be in a Mediterranean se tting). Since a contrived foreign accent is often used to signal that the typical or logical language of the se tting would not be English , it is not surprising to see that the highes t percentage of characters with foreign-accented English occurs in the second type of language setting. But it is also significant that even mo re

Mythi cal kingdom (12%)

Setting uncl ear (4%)

Europe, Near East (25 %)

Teaching children how to discriminate 89

US , Britai n, Australia (60%)

Figure 5.4 371 Disney a nimated characters by story setting (percentage fi gures rounded up)

250

200

100

50

40

20

15

10

5

0

222

Eng li sh- speaking

105

Non-English- spea.king

D No. of characters 0 With fore ign accents

44

Mythical kingdo m

Figure 5.5 37 1 Disney an im a ted charac ters by lan guage spoken in the co unt ry in wh ich the story is set, and the number of characters with foreign -accen ted Englis h

90 Institutionali zed language ideology

Table 5.2 371 Disney anim ated characters by major langu age group and evaluation of character's actions and motivationsR

Motivations ------·

Positi ve N egative Mixed Unclear Total %

----·· us 122 33 11 42 208

56. l British 53 28 11 37 129

34.8 Forei gn lO 11 6 7 34

9.2 -----·· -----·-·----·--~· -- --··- --~---~ ---... ---- ---- -- -------·--------- -------·· Total 185 72 28 86 371 % 49.9 . 19.4 7.5 23.2 100.0

characters with foreign accents appear in sto ries set m the US and England.

The breakdown of characters by their language variety becomes inter- esting when we examine that variety in relationship to the motivations and actions of the character's role. Disney films rely heavi ly on common themes of good and evil, and with very few exceptions they depend also on happy endings. Characters with unambiguously positive roles constitute 49 .9 pe rcent of the total ; those who are clearly bad or eve n evil , on ly 19.4 percent. The remainder are divided between characters who change signifi- cantly in the course of the story (always from bad to good) and those characters whose roles are too small and fleeting for such a judgment to be made (86, or 23.2 percent of th e total) , as seen in Table 5.2. .

Fem ale characters are more likely to show positive motivations and action s (Figure 5.6). Unlike male characters who sometimes are bad and then become good, bad fema les show no characte r development.

The pie chart in Figure 5.7 would first seem to indicate that there is no relationship between non-n ative English accents and the portrayal of good and evil. There are 72 characters who are truly bad , in major and min or roles. They include the poacher and would-be child-murderer Percival McLeach in Th e Rescu ers Down Under with his contrived southwestern accent and idiom ("purty feather, boy!" "I whupped ya'JI!" "Horne, home on the range, where the critters ' r ta-id up in chains"), and the whip-and- cleaver wielding Stromboli of Pino cchio, with his threats of dismember- ment, incredible rages, and florid, contrived Italian accent. Of these evil 72, however, a full 85 percent are native speakers of English ; almost half are speakers of US English. Bad guys with foreign accents acco unt for only 15 percent of the whole.

Tak en in context. however. the issue is more complicated. In Figu re 5.8 , which compares positive. negative, and mixed motivations (the marginal characters have been removed for the sake of this discussion) by major

Teaching children how to discriminate 91 %

60

50

Male

40

30

20

10

()

Positive Negative Mixed Unclear

Total no. of characters: Male 259, Female 112

Figure 5.6 371 Disney animated characters hy gender and evaluation of actions and motivations

Foreign-accented English ( 15'fn)

British and other English (39%)

US English (46%)

Figure 5. 7 72 Disney animated characters with negative motivations and actions, hy major language group

92 Institutionalized language ideology

%

~ Positive%

• Negative% D Mixed% US English

73.5

19.9

6.6

British and other English

57.6

30.4

12

Foreign-accented English

37

40.7

22.2

Figure 5.8 285 Disney animated characters of positive, negative, or mixed motivations and actions, by major language group

language groups, it becomes clear that the overall representation of per- sons with foreign accents is far more negative than that of speakers of US or British English. About 20 percent of US English speakers are bad char- acters, while about 40 percent of non-native speakers of English are evil.

Additional interesting patterns come forward when we examine the representation of specific languages linked to national origin, race, or characterization.

Beasts and beauties

With the 1967 release of The Jungle Book, the relationship between voice, language, and characterization entered a new realm in Disney film. This was the first feature in which actors were cast on the basis of voice recog- nition. Actors and musicians who had already established a personality and reputation with the movie-going public were drawn, quite literally, into the animation and storytelling process. This strategy was not greeted with enthusiasm by all film critics:

'::ll 11 1 I -------- --'" .... --------~

Tea ching children how to discriminace 93

Anim ating full-bodi ed, expressive characters is what me n like Thom as, Kahl , Johnston and Lounsberry do best. Other artists provide a hand- some backdrop and ad d dazz ling a nimati on effe cts. But breathing heart and so ul in to a film is no t so easily accomplished. The Jun gle B ook lacked this quality, and substituted for it a gallery of characte rs whose strongest id entity was with the stars wh o provided th eir voice s. The animators enjo yed working with people like George Sand ers, Louis Prima, and Phil Ha rris, and incorp orated e lements of th eir personalities into the animated characters. A ud iences naturally res ponded . so the a nimators felt justifi ed in co ntinuing this practice. " It is much simpl e r and more realistic than creating a character and then searchin g for the right vo ice ," [produ cer] R eitherm an contended.

(Maltin l 987: 74-75)

This addition al complicatio n to the use of accent and dialect in th e building of character and stereo type is re lev ant to a discussion of the representation of African Americans by means of lan guage in Disn ey films.

Especi ally in more recent years, Disney has engaged African American actors to provide the vo ices of maj or characters in their a nima ted film s. Sometimes th ese actors speak MUS E, as is the case with James Earl Jones speaking the role of the fath er in The Lion Kin g. Som etimes they fluc- tuate be twee n MUSE a nd AAVE , drawin g o n rh ythmic a nd lexica l items for dramatic an d comic effect. This is the cas e wi th Wh oopi Goldberg's performance as one of the evil hyen as, also in Th e Lion King. So metimes these actors see m to be usin g th e ir own va riety of English with little e mbellishment, as was the case wh en Pearl Bailey spoke the pa rt of Big Marna in The Fox and the Hound. Table 5.3 gives a n overview of all the characters in these film s wh o use, to a grea ter or lesser extent , AAV E . Additional AAVE-speaking characters seem to ha ve flitt ed in and out of the abduction scene in The Jun gle Book; howeve r, they were not included in the analysis because the spe aking roles were too small to be sure of th e variety of English used. It need s to be stated quite clearl y that thi s li st does not rep resen t the sum total of all African Am ericans who had speaking roles in the movies ex amin ed , but on ly th ose who chose or wh o were directed to use AAVE for a particular part.

Whil e the 161 MUSE spea kers appear in proportions of 43.1 percen t human oi d, 54.4 percent anim al and 2.5 perce nt inanimate creatures (such as the ta lking teapot in Beauty and ihe Beast), all A AV E -speaking char- acters appear in a nimal rather than human o id form . Given the low overall numbe r of AAVE speakers, however, it is hard to draw an y in fe re nces from th at fact. The issue is furthe r complica ted in that e very character with a southern accent appears in anim a l rather than human oid form . Further ex amin a tion of unambi guously positiv e and negative cha racters indicates that a full 43.4 perce nt of 90 ch aracters in human form show

94 Institutionalized language ideology

Table 5.3 Disney animated characters who use AAVE part or all of the time

Name Actor (where Humanoid Film Role Typical credits available) or animal evaluation language

of setting -~---,--~---------··- ---~-

Dandy Cliff Edwards crow Dumbo Mixed English Fat Jim Carmichael crow Mixed English Glasses Hall Johnson Choir crow Mixed English Preacher crow Mixed English Straw Hat crow Mixed English

King Louie Louis Pima primate Jungle Book Mixed Hindi*

Big Mama Pearl Bailey owl Fox and Hound Positive English

Scat Scatman Crothers cat Aristocats Mixed French

Shenzi Whoopi Goldberg hyena Lion King Negative Swahili*

*The category "typical language'' is based on the country in which the story is set Most of the movies are set in the US, thus the typical language is English. The Jungle Book is set in India, and The Lion King in Africa. The typical languages of these stories could be any one of many native languages spoken in those places: f have chosen one of the many possible languages in such cases.

negative actions and motivations while only 18.6 percent of the 156 animal characters are negative.

Perhaps more disturbing than the issue of human versus animal form is the way in the world which is cast so clearly for those African Americans who are speakers of AA VE. The stereotypes are intact: the male charac- ters seem to be unemployed or show no purpose in life beyond the making of music and pleasing themselves, and this is as true for the crows in Dumbo as it is for the orangutan King Louie and his crew of primate subjects in The Jungle Book. Much has been made of King Louie and his manipulation of the only human being in this story; singing in the scat- style made popular by African American musicians, he convinces his audi- ence that he has one goal in life, and that is to be the one thing he is not: a human being, a man. African American males who are not linguistically assimilated to the sociolinguistic norms of a middle and colorless United States are allowed very few possibilities in life. but they are allowed to want those things they don't have and can't be.

The two female characters are also controversial, but for very different reasons. Pearl Bailey's Big Mama must be seen as a stereotype of the loving, nurturing mammy, but one with a mind of her own. Whoopi Goldberg, who voices the part of one of the hyenas in The Lion King, slips in and out of AAVE for comic and dramatic effect. It must be noted that she is the only African American actor to do so in this film, a film which included - for Disney - an unusually high number of African Americans. We never hear AAVE from James Earl Jones as the King. None of the characters, whether they speak MUSE or AAVE, show any

....... ~ , -- . - -~ - --- --~------~-----

Teachin g children how ro discriminate 95

clear connection to th in gs African, with the excep tion of the wise baboon, Rafiki, who occ upies a spe cial but pe riph era l role in the film's story.

In general , children who have littl e or no contact with Africa n Americans ar e exposed to a fragment ed and distorted view of what it means to b e bl ack, base d on characteri zations which rest prim arily on negative stereotype link ed directly to language difference.

Lovers and mothers

R omance is a major plot device in many of Disney 's an imated films. Of th e twenty-four stori es examined here, thirtee n depe nd in part or whole o n the development of a relations hip between a ma le a nd a female character which has not to do with fri e ndship, but with Jove and ma te se lection. Those char- acters who are young and in potential sea rch of a mate or love interest provide some of the most interesting mate ri a l in these films overall. Th e re has been much commentary in the popular press o n the physical portray al of young men an d women in extreme and unrea listic terms, for both sexes. Doe-eyed heroin es with tiny waists and heroes with bulging neck s a nd overly muscular thighs have been roundl y criti cized , with little effect. There is littl e or no di scussion of the language spo ken by lovers, however. 9

In spite of th e se ttin g of the story o r th e individual's ethnicity, lovers speak mainstream varieties of US or British E ng li sh (Table 5.4), with so me interestin g exceptions. Of the male characters in Ta ble 5.4, only two can be said to be logically and certainly spe a ke rs of US English: Bern ard , who

Table 5.4 Lo vers and potentia l lovers in Disn ey a nimated mms

Language variety Film M ale Female

Mainstream US Beauty and the Beast Gaston (no mate ) Th e Beast Be lle

Rescuers Bernard Rescuers Down Unde r Berm\rd Cinderella P rin ce C ha rmin g Cindere lla Sleep ing Beawy Prince Philip Aurora Little M ermaid Prince Erik Ari el Snow White Prince Snow White Lion King Sim ha Nala Lady and the Tramp Lady

Socially marked Lady an d the Tramp Jock us Aristocats O'Ma ll ey

No n-US English Robin Hood R ob in Hood Maid Marion Rescuers Down Under Jake (no mate) 101 Da/mations Pon go Pe rdita

Roger Radcliff Anita Radcliff

Foreign-accente d R escuers Mi ss Bianca English Rescuers Down Under Miss Bianca

A ristocars Duchess

.rn

. i~ ·r

,., f,'.,

r ~'. j'..

L

l:-

/ I I I / ,, ' '..,. / ' / / ' ' ' / ' / ... "'\. / / ' ' ' / / '

96 Institutionalized language ideology

appears twice (The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under) , and Jock (Lady and the Tramp). All the other characters would be speakers of British or Australian English, or of lan guages other than English. The languages of the four princes (from Cinderella , Snow White , Sleeping Beauty, and Th e Little Mermaid) are de batable: the Disney version never specifies where these magical kingdoms are located (whether in the country of the story's origin or elsewhere).

Two of the male romantic leads speak socially marked varieties of US English: in The Aristocats, O'Malley (voiced by Phil Harris, a popular entertainer and singer of his day and cast o n the power of voice reco g- nition) does nothin g to change or disguise hi s own E ngli sh, which is rich in those chara cte ri stics which are often thought of as "working class " (simplified consonant clusters, double-nega ti ve constructio ns, and other stigmatized pho no logica l and gram matical features). This is also the case with Jock from Lady and the Tramp . Both of th ese characters are prototypical rough lovers, men with an edge who need the care and atten- tion of good women to set tle them, and bot h are rewarded with such mates - females wh o speak non-stigmatized varieties - because they prove themselves worthy. There are no male roman tic lea ds with forei gn acce nts.

There is even less variation among th e female romantic leads. There are no rough , workin g-class eq ui va lents o f O'Malley and Jock. In fact, of .th e seve n fe mal es who speak MUSE , only one is an unambiguous case of a character who wo uld log icall y speak US Engli sh: Lady of Lady and the Tramp. The use of a typ ical or logica l language for the part and background of the character is clearly less import ant in this case than a consistent portrayal of an ideal lover and potential mate which stresses the Jack of "otherness."

However, there are two fe male characters (one of whom occurs in two movies, The Rescuers and The Rescuers D own Under) with foreign accent s, but they are both voiced by the same woman , Eva Gabor. The Gabor sisters were widely known and recognized in US culture in the 1950s and 1960s for th eir glamor and de manding behavi or in man y hi ghly publicized affa irs with rich men. They were recognizab le on the basis of the ir Hungarian accents, and th ey brought with th em a set of associations a bout sex uall y aware and ava ilable females that resu lted in typecastin g. The roles that Eva Gabor voiced for Disney were thus of elegant, demandin g, an d desirable femal es, and could be seen not so muc h as characters with foreign acce nts as one of the Gabor sisters in full costume. Perhaps Disney's hope th at the public would associate the character on th e scree n with the public image of the actress voicing the part overrode more logical considera tion s. It was no ted by at least one critic, however,

tha t it mad e little sense to have the character of Th e A risrocats' Duchess, a pure-bred Persian cat living in France, spea king with a Hungarian acc ent.

..... ~ I 1 --~ - • - ·-------- -

Teaching children how to discriminate 97

Tab le 5.5 The lang uage of mothers a nd fath e rs in Disney an im ated films

Language Mo thers Fath ers

MUSE 15 8 Sociall y marked US 0 () Regionally marked US 0 1

Mainstream British 2 8 Socially or regionally mark ed

British or other E nglish 2 4

Fore ign -accented English l

To be truly sexually attractive and avail ab le in a Disney film, a character mu.>t not only look the idealized part, but he or she must also sound white and middle-class American or British.

In a similar way, mothers and fathers are most lik ely to have main- stream accents of US or British English , again with some interesting excep- tions. As seen in Table 5.5, only two of these characters speak English with a forei gn accent, altho ugh what would follo w logically fro m the story se ttin g is that e leven of these mothers and fathers would not be native spea kers of E ngli sh. Another thirteen characters appear in stories where the logical language might or might not be English. This applies particu- larly to the retelling of fairy tales in magical kingdoms (Cinderella, Sleep ing Beauty, The Little M erm.aid). 10 The two forei gn acce nts which are evident are Gepetto's (contrived) Italian -accented Engli sh in Pinocchio , and once again Eva Gabor as the glam oro us Duchess in The Aristocats. The only US-English-speaking fat her character with an accent which might be stigmatized is Gramps of The Rescuers, who is part of a larger group of stereotypical southerners with contrived accents.

Eva Gabor's voicing of the Duchess is the only instance in any of the movies where a mother takes o n a romantic lead . Otherwise, in Disney movies parenthood and romance do not intersect. However, there are a great number of single-parent fa milies overa ll. Of the twenty mothers, nine are widows or become widows in the course of the story, or have no husband in evidence; fiv e are step- or substitute moth e rs and are unm ar- ried; and in two cases the question of paternity is never raised, perhaps because it could not be answered in a way Disney considered suitable for ch ildren 's en tertainment.. This is the case in The Aristocats, but more particularly in The Lion King, where Mu fasa is the undisputed dominan t male of his pride, and would thereby have fathere d both Simba and Nala, who grow into adulthood and become mates. The fathers, in a similar way, are often widowers or si mply without wives: this is the case for eleven of the twenty-two.

There are few married couples with major roles in any film. Mr. and Mrs. Darling make only small appe aran ces in Peter Pan , which is also the

; :.i ,: i

98 Institutionali zed language ideology

case for th e mothe r and father in Lady and the Tramp and for Co lone l Hardy and his wife Winifred in The Jungle Book.

Perhaps most interes ting is the fact that mo th e rs who spea k non-U S varieties of English have a little more latitude in social and reg ional variation in their lan guage. This may be beca use th e non-mainstream varieti es of British English are not poorly thought of by US English speakers, who do not distinguish. for the most pa rt, be twee n stigmati zed varieties of British English (Geordie, Midl a nds, Cockney, e tc.) and those with more social currency.

Love rs in Disne y films marry, and sometimes at a very tende r age. But young or middle -aged married couples with growing families are se ld om if ever seen . And while young lo vers are presented in ide alized form both physically and linguistica lly, in la ter life stages these same kinds of ch aracte rs are not quite so narrowly drawn. The picture of moth e rh oo d portrayed in these animated films excludes careers and work o utside family a nd home, a nd clings very closely to langu age varieties associated with middl e -class norms and values. When seen at all , mothers a re presented without a hint o f ethnicity, regiona l affi liation, color, or eco- nomics. Fathers, often com ic o r droll characters, have in their langu age (as in work, preoccupa tion s and inte rests) a wider se t of choices a va ilable to them.

Francophilia Limited

It is not hard to elicit stere otypes of the Fre nch , because this is not a nation al origin group which is see n in nega tive terms. Because th e re are good - or neutral - things to say, it is perhaps easier to say them :

despite, or possibly because of, their civilized natures, the French people retain a childish eagern ess for fun and friv o lity as well as for knowl- edge. There is an impishness about many of them which is ca ptivating. Th ey ar e curious. like most children , and thi s curiosity leads them into e xperime nting with such things as piquant sauces for food .. . it can be sa id of the French . .. that whe n they are good , they are very, very good - but when th ey a re bad, they are - Apaches.

(He rm an and Herman 1943: 143)

A si de from the clearly racist final comment which has to do not with the French. but with a Native American tribe, this view of th e nation is not overtly nega tive. It is condescending, certainl y, and n arrow, but it does not call France a natio n of idiots or a kin gdom of evil (as the Herman and He rman volume does not hesi tate to do in other cases).

There are two films which are set directly in France: Th e Aristocats a nd Bea uty and the Beast, with a total of thirty-eight characters appearing in both stori es. Th e re is a wid e range of characterizations. excess ive ly ev il an d good, moody. generous, silly, drunken. Ma le characters includ e la wye rs,

I - 1 t -- ~ - L • ~~-· .... -------.-.............-~ -

Teaching children how to discriminate 99

Lumiere and Feather Duster from Walt Disney Pictures' animated feature Beauty and the Beast; © Disney Enterprises, Inc.

Sebastian and Louis from Walr Disney Pictures' animated feature The Little Mermaid; © Disney Enterprises, Inc.

!

I !

. : ;---

100 Institutionalized language ide ology

Ta ble 5.6 Characters with French-accented English in Disne y animated films

Setting Character Role Film

France Lumiere maitre d', steward B eauty and th e B east Stove chef Ch erie chambermaid Unnamed milkm an Arisro cacs Unnamed chef

Elsewhere Louis chef Little Mermaid Unnamed waiter R escuers

aristocrats, barkeepers, va gabo nds, inventors, bookselle rs, hunters, and servants. B eauty and the Beast takes pl ace in an active, busy rural village; The A ristocats primarily in Paris. There are children and old people, lovers and villains. Of all these thir ty-eight very diverse characters, all of whom would logicall y be speaking French, there are a total of fiv e who indicate this by contriving a French-accented English. In other films, two additional ch aracters appear with French accents, as seen in Ta ble 5.6.

Of th ese seven characters, one is female (Cherie, a feather duster) , and her primary purpose seems to be as a romantic fo il fo r the character Lumiere ; her only line, h aving been pursued behind the draperies by him , is "Oh no! I' ve been burnt by yo u before!" There are other beautiful and charming women and girls in Beauty and the Beast, but none of them are coquettis h, and non e of th e m have French acce nts. The subtle but unmistakable message is quite a simple one : there may logi cally be thirty- e ight characters before us who are French, but the truly French, the prototypical Fre nch, are those persons associated with food preparation or presentation , or those with a special talent for li ghthearted sexual bantering. If a pe rsonality is established at all , there are two basic person- ality types avail able to them: irascible (the chef in The Little Mermaid , and his counterpart in The A ristocats); and the se nsual rasca l.

Is this a terribl e picture to giv e children? After all , there are no truly " French " - linguistically, culturally, truly French - characters who are cri m- inal, who threaten children, who are lazy or co nnivin g. But there are also no French who are surgeon s, rock singers, who teach school or drive a ca b, or who are elderly. Rich people and aristocrats, in Fran ce or else- where, speak with British accents no ma tter what th eir logical language. The domain of life experience fo r things French is as narrow, if not as overtly negative, as that for AAVE speak ers.

Th e cultural stere otypes for specific national origin groups are perpet- uated in a systematic way in these stories created for , and viewed primarily by, children.

Teaching children how to discriminate 101

Summary

Close examination of the distributions indicates that these animated films provide material which links language varieties associated with specific national origins, ethnicities, and races with social norms and characteristics in non-factual and sometimes overtly discriminatory ways. Characters with strongly positive actions and motivations are overwhelmingly speakers of socially mainstream varieties of English. Conversely, characters with strongly negative actions and motivations often speak varieties of English linked to specific geographical regions and marginalized social groups. Perhaps even more importantly, those characters who have the widest variety of life choices and possibilities available to them are male, and they are speakers of MUSE or a non-stigmatized variety of British English. These characters may be heroes or villains, human or animal, attractive or unattractive. For females, on the other hand, and for those who mark their alliance to other cultures and places in terms of language, the world is demonstrably a smaller place. The more "negatives" a character has to deal with (gender, color, stigmatized language, less favorable national origin) the smaller the world. Even when stereotyping is not overtly negative, it is confining and misleading.

THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT

Disney films are not the only way in which we perpetuate stereotypes on the basis of language. The manipulation of language variety and accent to draw character is an old tool, but it is seldom a completely benign one. Stereotyping is prevalent in television programming and movies: situation comedies (Beverley Hillbillies, I Love Lucy, Sanford and Son, All in the Family, Molly Goldberg, American Girl, Ma and Pa Kettle, Green Acres, Andy Griffith) in particular provide numerous examples, which need to be examined more closely.

Language and accent as symbols of greater social conflict are also found in serious dramatic efforts, on television and film. The 1993 film Falling Down provides a disturbing example. In that film, a middle-class worker portrayed as beleaguered by inner-city life loses his temper with an irascible convenience-store clerk: the episode begins when the protagonist asks the price of an item. The following is from the script:

The proprietor, a middle-aged ASIAN, reads a Korean newspaper ... the Asian has a heavy accent ...

ASIAN: eighdy fie sen. D-FENS: What? ASIAN: eighdy fie sen. D-FENS: I can't understand you ... I'm not paying eighty-five cents for

a stinking soda. I'll give you a quarter. You give me seventy ''fie"

102 Institutionalized language ideology

cents back for the phone ... What is a fie? There's a "V" in the word. Fie-vuh. Don't they have ''v's" in China?

ASIAN: Not Chinese, I am Korean. D-FENS: Whatever. What differences does that make? You come over

here and take my money and you don't even have the grace to learn to speak my language ...

(Smith 1992: 7-8)

Here, accent becomes a very convenient and fast way to draw on a whole series of very emotional social issues, and all of them in a spirit of conflict, from immigration and the rights and responsibilities thereof. to greater issues of dominance and subservience, race and economics. The scene is very believable; many have had or observed such exchanges. The protago- nist, clearly a man on the edge of socially acceptable behavior, is also portrayed as someone pushed to that edge by the pressures of inner-city life. He is overtly cruel and condescending and racist; but, somehow, he is also seen as not completely wrong.

In this film, a foreign accent becomes the signal of what has gone wrong with us as a nation, and his dismay and his anger, while excessive, are cast as understandable. From Charlie Chan to this owner of a corner store, our understanding of Asians - all Asians - has been reduced to a series of simple images. They are inscrutable, hard-working, ambitious, intelli- gent but unintelligible people, and they make us uncomfortable. I will return to the way that Asians and Asian-accent English are perceived in

Chapter 11. Even films which are made specifically for the purpose of illuminating

and exploring racial and other kinds of social injustice are not free of the very subtle effects of standard language ideology. A close examination of Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993) shows a great deal of consistency in the use of accent: "The accents of individuals reflect their position in World War II Poland. That is, German characters are given - by and large - German accents, and Jewish characters generally possess Yiddish accents" (Goldstein 1995: l). Even here, however, the suppression of variation for some characters has been noted, this time falling along lines not of color or religion, but of gender. In an initial exploration, Goldstein found that the more sexually available and attractive a female character was, the less distinctive her accent.

Following this pattern, the German women who were wives and mistresses - and therefore the most sexually available women in the movie - did not have strong German accents [while] the older and Jess attractive Jewish women had heavier and thicker Yiddish accents ... linguistic accent seems to be part of what is deemed attractive about [some] women.

(l 995: 6)

Teaching children how to discriminate 103

These patterns held true for males as well: conservative Jews had stronger Yiddish accents; the worst of the prison guards, brutish Nazis, had the heaviest German accents (ibid.). It seems that even the highest standards" in film making cannot be free of the social construction of language. And perhaps there is nothing that can or should he done about this process in its subtlest form. It is, after all, part of the social behavior which is of interest to art as the representation of the human condition.

What children learn from the entertainment industry is to be comfort- able with same and to be wary about other, and that language is a prime and ready diagnostic for this division between what is approachable and what is best left alone. For adults, those childhood lessons are reviewed daily.